to expect a Comparative Literature student to like reading?

[NadineBaggott]

On Weakest Link last evening there was a young girl doing a degree course in comparative literature.

Anne: so you like reading?
Girl: no, not really
Anne: so how does that work?
Girl: I use the internet.

I wonder if anyone has told her that maybe she's doing the wrong course! But then, she probably got through school without having to read a whole book, and has no idea that literature generally means books.

They never like bloody reading. Taught A level literature for 10 years to annoying teenagers who found reading "boring" Grrrrrr

so what is that 'A' level actually 'worth' then?

I am teaching English Lit to BA undergraduates atm.

They often start off thinking they don't have to go to libraries and read books. I find it incredible.

I mark them right down for their first essay if it only cites the internet and sometimes give them a paper reading list. These kids are often far from thick, they simply haven't connected with the book world.

I have never taught in a secondary school but wonder what the h*ll is actually going on in them to produce this kind of attitude.

One of the reasons I took Eng Lit at A level was so that I could read novels . I remember clearly the huge numbers of books I read for history too.

so why do they choose to study literature then?

"I am teaching English Lit to BA undergraduates atm."

"These kids are often far from thick, they simply haven't connected with the book world."

We had an English lit student living in our house when I was at uni. I'm sure she chose it cos they only had 4 hours of lectures a week - compared to our 28 or something. She was always at home listening to music.

Lazy git.

That's quite mad!!! I studied for a BA in French Lit and I used to read lots... Just assumed that enjoying reading would be a pre requisite for the course...

charlieq - to answer your question, in our secondary school most of the staff don't read books, let alone the kids

I did my degree in English because I loved (and stil do love) reading. I agree that often people think it's an easy choice. So sad though to choose something which allows you to read full time for 3 years and not want to read

Makes you wonder she even opted for this degree .......

Gobbledigook - did we share a house?

I studied English because I loved literature and poetry - but non-compulsory lectures just invited me to be lazy. The whole course was too laid back - or at least I interpreted it as being so. I regretted it in the end, as it wasn't until my third year when I realised that you got out of the course what you put in and I finally pulled my metaphorical finger out.

Was always slightly jealous of the motivation that drove my fellow housemates (geologists).

lol

I went to Oxford. One graduate student, when asked why she had hardly made a dent in her reading list, is reported to have said 'I didn't come here to read books'. True story, apparently - reliable source.

Things must have changed so much in the space of 10 years.

The only reason I chose English was because I was book obsessed; there didn't seem to BE any other reason.

Now I wonder what the determinants of degree/A-level choices are? thinking English is a light/'doss' subject maybe??

(My students get that knocked out of them on the literary theory module heh heh)

I didn't read a novel the whole three years of my degree - but I did do music! Actually I still had to read Piers Ploughman and The Name of the Rose for some reason I never understood.

The rest of my life apart from those 3 years I always have had my nose in a book.

My friends did her dissertation on children's books ("not as many words to read")!

I did the baccalaureat at school, and opted to do an English Lit A level as an external student so that I had an excuse to read all the time! I think I got through more books on the optional reading list for the baccalaureat than anyone else in my class, too. Yes, in retrospect I was a completely abnormal teenager...

I remember doing Far from the Madding Crowd for A level and after reading it in the summer getting all the Hardy out of the library and reading the whole damn lot. Not surprisingly I got an A.

I was the same at Uni - got set one piece of Schoenberg and then listened to everything I could get my hands on.

It still surprises me that other people don't gorge like this. Ds will probably turn out the same as if he likes a book by one author I order the whole lot out of the library for him.

I used the internet in an emergency diploma situation just before Christmas because all the Uni libraries were shut, or not getting in things for students. But it felt very unsatisfactory.

I went on a Hardy binge after doing Tess for A level. Much preferred Jude the Obscure and the Return of the Native!

I did an English degree (at Oxford) as it was a fabulous way to read loads and loads and loads and loads of lovely novels...

EL - nope, not me! I was a pharmacologist/physiologist!

Shocking...but not surprising, a depressing number of my A level English students do very little reading apart from the set texts.

On holiday last summer I was chatting with a man who had just moved away from teaching English at A-level to teaching English to foreigners as he was fed up with the total lack of motivation from the British students. He said he was lucky, in some schools, if he had one pupil in each year who chose English out of a passion for the language or literature. Almost without exception they thought it would be an easy subject as "Well, it's our own language, innit." At least foreigners were motivated to learn the language by choice.

Doing English lit strikes me as like studying gynaecology because you like sex.

hmm. DC are you one of these business/science people who think the arts & literature are a a matter for the 'spare time' of more enlightened citizens?

Cos after all they're only 'recreational'??

I have been given that line a few times. To which I usually reply that I could probably try to dabble in genetic science in my 'spare time', but the results would be sh*te and worthless. Because I am totally ignorant of practical science- just as people who think they can 'dabble' in the arts are totally ignorant of what they are on about.